Annals of the University of Craiova - Agriculture, Montanology, Cadastre Series
Abstract
Drought is one of the environmental factors that adversely affect the growth and productivity of plants. Plants adapt their metabolism by developing various defensive mechanisms to survive unfavorable conditions. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of water stress (50% field capacity) on photosynthetic pigments, protein, soluble sugars, amino acids and proline content in leaves of three varieties of wheat (Dropia, Alex and Boema). The results show that the contents of soluble sugars, amino acids, total carotenoids and proline increase with decreasing water content in soil while the content in chlorophyll and protein decreases in all studied genotypes. The results suggest that the investigated biochemical indices play an active role in regulating osmotic pressure, an important mechanism in plant tolerance to drought stress
